Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has
said that the massive looting of the nation’s resources by the immediate past
administration of President Goodluck Jonathan is responsible for the economic
crunch the country is experiencing under the present administration.

He specifically said that before
the 2015 elections, the government of Goodluck Jonathan, ostensibly doled out
N100billion and $295million in cash within two weeks.

Speaking yesterday in Lagos at a
‘Greater Nigeria Pastors Conference’ organised by Rev. Yomi Kasali’s-led Berean
Ministers Group, Osinbajo said the Nigerian system was deeply infested with
corruption, adding that graft should be pointedly tackled at all levels of
institution.

According to him, the Muhammadu
Buhari-led administration decided to borrow to fund the budget because the
nation’s earning had dropped and millions of Naira are still unaccounted for in
the last administration.

He said: “The theft of resources
in this country is the first and primary reason for our poverty.

“That is why we have to address
the issue of corruption pointedly, not once in a while because the system is
corrupt; it is a corrupted system that we are running. This is not a system
where corruption is just an exception, corruption is generally the rule in the
Nigerian system.

“It is easy to say how come we
don’t have money or why are we borrowing money? If you as an individual have
N1million and somebody stole N900,000 from it, you won’t ask the question how
come I am poor? You will immediately tie the theft of your money to your
poverty.

“When we came in, we had a
foreign reserve of $32 billion, but there was $15billion used for defence
contract that was unaccounted for.

“Weeks before the 2015 elections,
the government then, gave out N100billion in cash and $295million in cash
ostensibly for security within two weeks. Those are the reasons why we don’t
have money.”